1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to methods of using field ionization devices, and, more particularly, to a method for using field emitter arrays to mitigate and remediate chemical and biological hazards.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of the biggest threats to the military and civilian populations of the United States and the rest of the world is the use of weapons of mass destruction based on biological and chemical warfare. Research emphasis has been on the detection of biological weapons because of the potentially catastrophic nature of the use of biological weapons. Until recently, there has been less emphasis on chemical weapons because of the large volume of material typically required to pose a major threat. However, there is growing concern that terrorists, foreign or domestic, could attack chemical plants producing ammonia (NH3), chlorine (Cl2), insecticides, and the like, where there are large volumes of highly toxic materials. Additionally, there are many manufacturing facilities (for example, manufacturing plants that typically use arsine, germane, diborane, and the like) where there are also large volumes of highly toxic materials already in place that may be vulnerable to terrorist attack. Because of these and other similar potentially disastrous scenarios, chemical weapons again are a major concern.
One of the problems with many of the current schemes for biological warfare defense (BWD) and chemical warfare defense (CWD) is that the defense systems are specific to certain chemicals or pathogens. Schemes that provide a more general defense such as high temperature catalytic oxidation or radio frequency (RF) plasma oxidation, require a large amount of energy and power, and can produce harmful side-products. What is required is a defense system that can render harmless a large number of pathogens or compounds without producing harmful side-products. Another important element, especially for military applications is that the defense system should be portable and power-efficient enough so that the defense system can be used and implemented by individual soldiers and on small vehicles.
Biological and chemical warfare and/or terrorism and/or accidents are complicated by the fact that the delivery of the biological and/or chemical agents can be as simple as exposure of the pathogens and/or toxins to the atmosphere, resulting in potentially wide dispersal. Examples of these biological and/or chemical agents and/or pathogens and/or toxins may include Sarin ((CH3)2CHOP(O)FCH3), Soman ((CH3)3CHCH3OP(O)FCH3), VX (CH3P(O)OC2H5SCH2CH2N(CH(CH3)2)2), and the like. The delivery method can be simple and extremely low cost. The effect of the biological and/or chemical agent can be immediate, or it can be delayed for days. Conventional devices are expensive, slow, consume a lot of power, and are bulky. These devices cannot operate in real-time and are not suitable for battlefield and forward deployment or emergency situations. Conventional approaches that are fast and that have the potential for real-time operation are extremely agent-specific and can be thwarted by developing new biological and chemical warfare agents. Hence, new approaches that have the potential of instantaneous detection in the field that are low cost, portable and consume very little power are desired.
The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.